Hiking Guadalupe National Park

Today was a busy day of hiking. We started out with the Devil's Hall Trail. It seems simple at just about 4 miles, but it is not. The trail is not a loop, so it's out and back on the same route. The first mile was the normal rock-covered trail down through the walkways between the high hillsides. Then... The trail turns into boulder hiking and scrambling with figuring out your own path through the 'wash' of huge boulders and scrambling over and around them. Good thing we had our trekking poles to help, along with good hiking boots. Once we made our way through the wash, there was a vertical wall of striated rock that you had to climb up on the individual narrow ledges. And then finally to the deep cavern of the Devil's Hall. It is a narrow chasm over a hundred feet high of more striated rock and carved out by the seasonal rains that flow through Devil's Hall into the wash of huge boulders. Was a very different 'hike' through the boulders in the wash and then up and also down the very steep wall.
Then on to our second hike, also within the park, which seemed much simpler compared to our earlier experience. The Smith Spring and Manzanita Spring Loop starts at the Frijole Ranch, which has a natural spring that helped the family grow an orchard in the harsh terrain. The hike was over slightly rocky terrain in a loop from the house to the spring that flows from the underlying limestone rock into a small stream that the people around used as their water supply. It was only about a 3 mile circular loop with views of the park as far as you can see. It's mainly small trees and cactus plants along the trail and native lands around the park.Read more